1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to administering computer networks and relates more particularly to a system for managing selected events which occur in a plurality of computers within a computer network.
2. Description of the Background Art
The management of computer networks presents an increasing challenge as the size of these networks grows larger. Computer networks may have a variety of different computers, databases and applications dispersed over a large geographical area and each network component may have different ways of handling information. Ideally these computers are controlled through a relatively small number of "administrative computers" which are dedicated to management and administrative functions, each managing and administrating a large number of the heterogeneous "managed computers."
Management functions include setting and monitoring of various alarms that indicate conditions or "events" requiring management action, the definition and implementation of these actions when the specified events occur, and the monitoring of statistics concerning the operation of the various network computers. This management process can become very complex and time-consuming in large computer networks. Furthermore, the corrective actions for different types of managed computers may vary widely in a highly diverse distributed computing environment. Any given management or administration system used in conjunction with large computer networks is limited by the above factors.
Thus it is desirable to provide a management system that is sufficiently flexible to handle the administration of a wide variety and a large number of managed computers in an efficient manner. Such a management system preferably achieves two distinct objectives. First, as the number of managed computers increases, it becomes essential to prevent the systems administrator from becoming overwhelmed with the increasing amount of management information and action required, and to automate these operations as much as possible. Thus it is desirable to include facilities within a management system to avoid presenting the system administrator with excessive amounts of information and to minimize the number of decisions and actions that are required by the system administrator. Secondly, it is desirable to provide a management system that is optionally self-configuring. Therefore, an improved event management system is needed for administering a distributed computing environment according to the present invention.